A web presence is essential these days for any business that is serious about being successful. However it equates to so much more than just having a website, your customers not only need to be able to find it but then want social proof that you are a business that they will want to deal with.

The internet is evolving fast and the days of being able to manipulate things to your advantage are all but over. The search engines are smarter than they have ever been and the line between the web and the real world is blurring.

The only way to promote your business on-line is with genuine content and activity, your potential customers will see right through any attempt to trick them.

Almost 80% of internet users will conduct some form of preliminary research before buying a product or service and will be looking at reviews and social media to make their decisions. You need to make sure that the things people are saying about you are good.

It's actually far less complicated to promote your business locally now than it used to be. In the past it required a deep understanding of how the search engines worked and in turn how to manipulate them. Nowadays it's much simpler:

Do a good job and make sure your customer is truly happy, ask them to vouch for you online and provide a review and social proof and then provide genuine, interesting content on your website and social media profile for both your prospects and the search engines.

Take a local plumber as an example. Here is the ideal day-to-day process he should be following to promote his business online.

Do a fantastic job for his customer and make sure they are happy

Take photos of his work and write a case study for each job

Use this content to add to his website

Link to this content from his social networks

Ask his customer to leave a review and then interact with his social networks

This process creates a regular stream of content on the website and social media profiles that not only impresses potential future customers but gives the search engines exactly what they want. By the customer giving their feedback and reviews, not only does our plumber know that he is doing a good job but the social proof this provides to onlookers and the search engines is incredibly powerful.

Think about this. 50% of small business owners do not even have a website and of those that do 95% do not have any other content on their website apart from the usual welcome paragraph and then contact information. Even the very small percentage left that do have some content will not keep adding it on a regular basis and those that do are very unlikely to add any kind of social proof into the mix.

As you can see it's easy to be head and shoulders above your competitors just by following this simple process. So if this formula is so effective and so simple to follow, why do most small business owners just not do it? Time and effort are probably the top two answers, technical knowledge the third.

This is where I can help you by providing services that follow my core concept.

After setting up your complete online presence I can work for you to create your content each month, add it to your website and social media profiles and then help you to get your customer to take the action you need them to.